CONVENT OUTRAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 213, 16 February 1915, Page 2

CONVENT OUTRAGES.

GERMAN FIENDS. DOCTOR'S APPALLING STORIES. No more damning indictment of the diabolical outrages perpetrated by the Kaiser's. Huns in Belgium has been framed than that contained in the wellautlienticatcd story told by Professor Jacobs, of Brussels, to a meeting in Edinburgh of the Belgian doctors and pharmacists relief fund. Tile outrages described by the doctor, and quoted in tlie Lancet, exceed in devilry anything that lias hitherto been disclosed since the war began. Professor Jacobs opened by recounting the sufferings of this country in this terrible war. When the Belgians heard of the declaration of war they to a man decided to defend their neutrality; they considered it was their duty to do so. Tlieir country had suffered terribly. Doctors had not been spared; they were, also bearing their heavy share. They were devoting their care, and, if necessary, their lives, to their country. But they had no medical stores; their homes and pharmacies were ruined Was it realised what they were suffering? They were trying faithfully to fulfil their duty by remaining at their posts. Some were carrying 011 their practice in ruined buildings. They were endeavoring to sustain their wives and children, and at the same time doing their best to alleviate the misery among them. Some doctors had had to work as navvies, some had had to sell what had been spared by the Germans. Professor Jacobs had met a doctor who had not oaten bread for a fortnight, living only on potatoes. Some had to lie on straw for beds. One had his only pair of boots on his feet, and these falling to pieces; others had only torn garments to clothe themselves with. One had to live for three days on wayside herbs, and his wife shared his fate. Another was searching in vain for six or seven days for his wife and family in the country around. Some doctors had been imprihis eyes gouged out, and was then shot. One, the burgomaster of a place near Liege, wag seized,

FAD HIS EARS CUT OFF, his eyes gouged out, and was then shot. Afterwards his head was carried on the end of the lance of a Uiilan t?iroug:i the town. There were widows and orphans of doctors deprived of everything. A doctor and his son were shot before the eyes of the wife. As head of the Belgian Red Cross, Professor Jacobs visited a chateau, but found the Red Cross had not been respected; it had been completely destroyed, and the bodies of six girls, aged from 10 to 17, were lying on the lawn. A convent, containing 60 sisters, had been entered by the German soldiers, and every one had been brutally assaulted. Professor Jacobs had operated on the wife of a doctor living near Namur. Three weeks after tile operation, when convalescing, and still in bed, their house was entered by German soldiers; she was similarly treated, and died two days afterwards. Many civilians had been shot; some places had only a few inhabitants left out of hundreds. In Dinant more than 900 had been shot, and the town razed. The speaker was in his house in Brussels when the Germans occupied the city, and th 0 military were disposed in the houses. Some came to his bouse, and he recognised German professors whom lie had some acquaintance with. Ho could not shake hands with them, but gave them beds. They left early in the morning, and, on entering his operating-room, he found -they had stolen his instruments.